Eucalyptus: Cladodes

A leaf (plural leaves) is the principal lateral appendage of the vascular plant stem,[1] usually borne
above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. The leaves and stem together form the shoot.
[2]
Leaves are collectively referred to as foliage, as in "autumn foliage".[3][4] In most leaves, the
primary photosynthetic tissue, the palisade mesophyll, is located on the upper side of the blade or
lamina of the leaf[1] but in some species, including the mature foliage of Eucalyptus,[5] palisade
mesophyll is present on both sides and the leaves are said to be isobilateral. Most leaves are
flattened and have distinct upper (adaxial) and lower (abaxial) surfaces that differ in color, hairiness,
the number of stomata (pores that intake and output gases), the amount and structure of epicuticular
wax and other features. Leaves are mostly green in color due to the presence of a compound
called chlorophyll that is essential for photosynthesis as it absorbs light energy from the sun. A leaf
with white patches or edges is called a variegated leaf.
Leaves can have many different shapes, sizes, and textures. The broad, flat leaves with
complex venation of flowering plants are known as megaphylls and the species that bear them, the
majority, as broad-leaved or megaphyllous plants. In the clubmosses, with different evolutionary
origins, the leaves are simple (with only a single vein) and are known as microphylls.[6] Some leaves,
such as bulb scales, are not above ground. In many aquatic species, the leaves are submerged in
water. Succulent plants often have thick juicy leaves, but some leaves are without major
photosynthetic function and may be dead at maturity, as in some cataphylls and spines.
Furthermore, several kinds of leaf-like structures found in vascular plants are not totally homologous
with them. Examples include flattened plant stems called phylloclades and cladodes, and flattened
leaf stems called phyllodes which differ from leaves both in their structure and origin.[4][7] Some
structures of non-vascular plants look and function much like leaves. Examples include
the phyllids of mosses and liverworts.
Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants.[8] Green plants are autotrophic,
meaning that they do not obtain food from other living things but instead create their own food
by photosynthesis. They capture the energy in sunlight and use it to make simple sugars, such
as glucose and sucrose, from carbon dioxide and water. The sugars are then stored as starch,
further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such
as proteins or cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls, or metabolized by cellular
respiration to provide chemical energy to run cellular processes. The leaves draw water from the
ground in the transpiration stream through a vascular conducting system known as xylem and obtain
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by diffusion through openings called stomata in the outer
covering layer of the leaf (epidermis), while leaves are orientated to maximize their exposure to
sunlight. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of active growth
such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a special tissue called
the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other, but the transport of materials is
usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch (ramify) to form veins
which supply as much of the leaf as possible, ensuring that cells carrying out photosynthesis are
close to the transportation system.[9]
Typically leaves are broad, flat and thin (dorsiventrally flattened), thereby maximising the surface
area directly exposed to light and enabling the light to penetrate the tissues and reach
the chloroplasts, thus promoting photosynthesis. They are arranged on the plant so as to expose
their surfaces to light as efficiently as possible without shading each other, but there are many
exceptions and complications. For instance, plants adapted to windy conditions may
have pendent leaves, such as in many willows and eucalypts. The flat, or laminar, shape also
maximizes thermal contact with the surrounding air, promoting cooling. Functionally, in addition to
carrying out photosynthesis, the leaf is the principal site of transpiration, providing the energy
required to draw the transpiration stream up from the roots, and guttation.
Many gymnosperms have thin needle-like or scale-like leaves that can be advantageous in cold
climates with frequent snow and frost.[10] These are interpreted as reduced from megaphyllous leaves
of their Devonian ancestors.[6] Some leaf forms are adapted to modulate the amount of light they
absorb to avoid or mitigate excessive heat, ultraviolet damage, or desiccation, or to sacrifice light-
absorption efficiency in favor of protection from herbivory. For xerophytes the major constraint is not
light flux or intensity, but drought.[11] Some window plants such as Fenestraria species and
some Haworthia species such as Haworthia tesselata and Haworthia truncata are examples of
xerophytes.[12] and Bulbine mesembryanthemoides.[13]

Eucalyptus: Cladodes

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A leaf (plural leaves) is the principal lateral appendage of the vascular plant stem,[1] usually borne

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